


Through the Fire

by sottovocexo



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Break Up, Brothers, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Love, Multi, Orphans, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2018-11-05 13:45:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11014641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sottovocexo/pseuds/sottovocexo
Summary: Drabbles from Mako’s POV about his childhood hardships with Bolin and his relationships with Korra and Asami.





	1. In Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako must look after Bolin when they lose their parents.

The cops came and took them away but not us. 

Bolin is young so he still smiles and laughs and I think it’s because he doesn’t quite remember. 

One day I’ll work so hard that we live someplace that isn’t dark when the sun goes down and the bread is fresh and I don’t have to worry about tomorrow or think about yesterday or the stale bread and the darkness. I’ll work so hard that when we grow up Bolin will always be smiling; he’ll smile because he won’t remember. 

I’m doing what I can. It’s hard hurting when I can’t let Bolin see me bleed.


	2. The City Lives Up to Its Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Republic: where wealth dictates power and power is held by the officials.

Republic City is the same at night and in the day. Offices built like palaces with ceilings too tall and chins so high they can’t see us in the streets. 

Most nights I stay awake thinking of how we’ll get through the next day. I don't wake Bolin because he can sleep and he should. There’s more to live for in our dreams. 

In the morning we’ll rise in Republic City where no one cares and we are helpless because we can’t help ourselves.


	3. The Bending Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toza gives Mako and Bolin the chance to stay off the streets and become successful.

Pro-bending is our chance. A way out. A gilded tower, a bed to sleep on, a future with honor. 

Toza says we can be champs and I know we can be more. I watch the others bend for sport but we do it to survive. You can’t knock us down when we've fought so hard to stand back up again. 

I’ve got us this far and I’ll keep going until the only fight we have left is in the ring and we won't be drowning; we’ll be flying.


	4. First to Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako and Bolin meet Korra at the beginning of Book One.

Bolin falls fast - for a line, a good con, a pretty face. He trusts so quickly, believes too deeply. We meet Korra and Bolin is falling all over again. This time, I can’t catch him.

She’s the Avatar. A headstrong hurricane. Rough around the edges, surging with crazy ideas and quick decisions. She's sucked us in like water from a shore. How can I stay back when I can’t look away?


	5. The Heart Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako muses on his feelings for Asami in Book One.

Asami. Her name, a song on my lips. Asami, with eyes I never want to see sad. 

Her arms, like comfort. She moves and I want to hold her tight. Her words are like a promise, steering me to something hopeful - something possible - she makes me think I can achieve. 

Her house is a mansion but she is the most like home I can remember.


	6. It's Always Been You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako confesses his feelings to Korra before she kisses him in Book One.

I said I was confused. Not because I don't know who I want. 

Asami is beautiful and it's easy to choose her. She lives a life I couldn't have dreamed up, yet we share a past I wish I could forget. When I get older, she'll be the one I want at my side, her eyes green and her lips red, locked on mine. But, already I'm growing up from the boy who worked for a better life for his brother, from the streets up to a tower. 

Asami was everything I had wanted. Before.

I am at a crossroads: one is my past, the other a storm.


	7. Good Graces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After they discover Hiroshi Sato is an Equalist, Mako struggles to comfort Asami on the airship in Book One.

What can I tell Asami to console her? Nothing I say will bring her dad back from the wrong path. I know what it’s like to lose a parent, but I’ll never know how it feels to be orphaned to the darkness. 

And Korra...I don't know how to tell her she was right.

She amazes me. She's the most powerful person I know, not because of her strength - but her grace. No matter how many reasons I give her to go, she makes up for my messes. What have I given her in return?

So I say thank you. She takes me back and points me to the path I need to be on. The one I think is best for me.

A heart full with forgiveness is far bigger than a mansion.


	8. If I Lose You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako grapples with Korra’s abduction in Book One.

Bolin was all I had but now there’s you. If I lose you it’ll start all over again, this family of two. 

I don’t remember the day you changed everything for me because it wasn’t just one moment. I’d only ever looked out for myself and my brother but you made the world your brother. You fought for people you didn’t know, saw something bigger than yourself. You had the power to be the change, and along the way you pulled me into your orbit and changed me too.

If I lose you, I'll lose myself. I can’t go back to who I was before: an incomplete picture.


	9. Well Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako grapples with his feelings while arguing with Asami in the kitchen toward the end of Book One.

For so long I dreamed of this life. Is it wrong to want what's easy? To keep what makes sense? I’m so close to having it all, I think, but Asami bats my hand. Can’t I have them both? I wonder, while Asami walks away. 

Korra has a way of putting well-made plans in the past, of reordering priorities. Of making me go all in.


	10. To a Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako tells Korra he loves her in the Book One finale.

I need to give her my all because I owe it to her, because she deserves it, so now I give her the most I can give: I love her. I don’t know if I’ll measure up, if it’ll be enough, for the person I don’t have to protect, but pay back. How can I repay her for giving me purpose? 

My feelings scream loud in the snow. Korra isn’t like anyone else. She takes a different road. If loving her means losing her, I still did the right thing.

She tells me to go, but I won't, I can't; I'm chasing the storm. From the first time our paths crossed, I couldn’t walk away. 

When I pull her into my arms, I find the eye of the hurricane. There’s calm.


	11. What She Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako struggles to serve as Korra’s counsel in Book Two.

She’s the Avatar.

I can’t forget it.

And I can’t handle it.

I’m an idiot.


	12. The Heart Is II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako and Asami embrace in his apartment before his arrest in Book Two.

Of course I’ll take Asami back into my arms because she makes sense. We are an old story I want to revisit, the one I can’t let go. She is everything I want. An escape. 

Her words are like a promise I can’t keep.


	13. Between Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako and Korra break up in the Book Two finale.

We are both fire, pouring gasoline on an open flame. She douses it with tears. 

One last kiss - soft - stops, our minds made up.

I'll always love her, and I mean it, like a soldier. I'll love her more than I did yesterday, differently than before. I'll never leave her, even though I'm letting her go.

Letting her go so I can stay, in battle, forever at her side.


End file.
